Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Story: "Squiggles" 1510.06.25

"Squiggles: Excerpts from Nleimen's Journal"

1510.06.25

I'm making good progress with my mice. The first crossover litter is old enough now that I can see their colors. Six of the eight pups are fawn, and two are golden. If I'm figuring the genetics right, then the breakdown should be something like:
2 mice: fawn/fawn
4 mice: fawn/golden (expressing as fawn)
2 mice: golden/golden

Now that I have an idea how the fawn/golden colors interact, I can start trying to cross the golden mice with the fawn Squiggle Mice. I am running low on space, though, and it's hard to keep up with all this extra work while still studying for school. When I get enough fawn Squiggles to sell to Sraffi, maybe I can hire an assistant.


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Tags: cyberfunded creativity, fantasy, fiction, reading, science fiction, squiggles, torn world, weblit, writing
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  • 4 comments
lyonesse

lyonesse

January 29 2014, 15:15:11 UTC 7 years ago

*grin* oh please be careful about your genetic numbers coming out too cleanly! this is how we know poor gregor mendel was misled by his theories into miscounting the heights and colors of his plants. (i don't think he purposely falsified data; i think he really saw what he expected to see.)

(i'm not referring to nleimen's estimate of her breakdown, but the numbers of pups looking this way or that way in her litter reports.)
ysabetwordsmith

Well...

ysabetwordsmith

January 30 2014, 22:14:32 UTC 7 years ago

Some genes are very simple and generate a perfect foursquare pattern of manifestation, although the exact numbers in a specific litter may vary. Others are complicated, with multiple ways they can manifest and/or interaction with other genes. There are some colors and coat patterns that we still don't understand fully, as witness the frustration of people trying to breed appaloosa horses.

I'm basing my descriptions of what happens with the Squiggle Mice somewhat on litters of kittens that I've seen with various color combinations, and somewhat on research into the genetics of mice and gene patterns in general.
siege

Re: Well...

siege

January 30 2014, 23:56:27 UTC 7 years ago

Note that we finally figured out that calico cats grow coat colors based on factors that aren't directly genetic, so twins and clones will never have exactly the same coat. So that in fact probably applies to the appaloosa as well!

But mouse coat genetics seem to be fairly regular stuff, sometimes with one or two extra genes involved.
ysabetwordsmith

Re: Well...

ysabetwordsmith

January 30 2014, 23:59:52 UTC 7 years ago

That's true for the shape and arrangement of appaloosa spots. However, some appaloosa patterns, like the hip-blanket ones, are notorious for being hard to breed consistently even if using all-appaloosa parents.